Canada West Universities Athletic Association

History

Manitoba

Winnipeg

UFV

(2027)

TWU

UBC

The Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WCIAU — later renamed Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association) was formed in 1919–20 as the first recognized western-based post-secondary athletic organization in Canada, with the University of Manitoba winning the first-ever league championship, a men's hockey title, in 1920.

In the spring of 1972, the WCIAA was split into the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA) and the Great Plains Athletic Association (GPAA - later renamed the Great Plains Athletic Conference).

CWUAA consisted of schools spanning from Victoria to Saskatoon (Victoria, British Columbia, Calgary, Alberta, Lethbridge and Saskatchewan), while GPAA's member institutions stretched from Regina to Thunder Bay (Regina, Brandon, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Lakehead).

Membership changes

In 1985–86, Canada West offered playing privileges to men's hockey teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) with other sports following over the years, culminating with the 2001–02 merger of basketball.

Since 1999, 11 additional schools have joined the Canada West's six charter members. Trinity Western joined in 1999–00 and, in 2000–01, all schools from the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) except for Brandon were provided full membership in Canada West (Manitoba, Regina and Winnipeg). Brandon joined as an associate member at the time, until full membership was granted in 2005.

Simon Fraser joined Canada West in 2000, followed by Thompson Rivers in 2005 and Fraser Valley in 2006.

Simon Fraser withdrew from the conference as a member after the 2009–10 season, following this, Simon Fraser officially became the first Canadian university to join the NCAA in the 2011–12 season; while both Thompson Rivers and Fraser Valley were awarded full membership in 2010 and, at the same time, UBC Okanagan received probationary membership.

In 2011, Mount Royal University and the University of Northern British Columbia were voted in as probationary members and began active competing in 2012–13.

In 2013, UBC Okanagan was awarded full membership, while Mount Royal University and the University of Northern British Columbia were awarded full membership in 2014.

Full membership was granted to MacEwan University in the spring of 2015, after the Edmonton-based university fulfilled their probationary membership requirements and was accepted by Canada West membership as the conference's 17th member.

In 2025, Simon Fraser announced their withdrawal from the NCAA and their intent to return to Canada West and U Sports effective for the fall of 2027. The university is currently pending approval.

Member schools

Current members

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Former member

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Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20

Period = from:1972 till:2032

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal

PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:40 top:5

Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.7,0.9,0.8) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.9,0.7,0.8) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.8,0.9,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for another sport only id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference when the other color has already been used

PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1972 till:end text:Alberta (1972–present)

bar:2 color:Full from:1972 till:end text:British Columbia (1972–present)

bar:3 color:Full from:1972 till:end text:Calgary (1972–present)

bar:4 color:FullxF from:1972 till:end text:Lethbridge (1972–present)

bar:5 color:Full from:1972 till:end text:Saskatchewan (1972–present)

bar:6 color:FullxF from:1972 till:end text:Victoria (1972–present)

bar:7 color:FullxF from:1999 till:end text:Trinity Western (1999–present)

bar:8 color:Full from:2000 till:2010 text:Simon Fraser (2000–2010)

bar:9 color:AssocOS from:2001 till:2005 text:Brandon (2001–present) bar:9 color:FullxF from:2005 till:end text:

bar:10 color:Full from:2001 till:end text:Manitoba (2001–present)

bar:11 color:Full from:2001 till:end text:Regina (2001–present)

bar:12 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text:Winnipeg (2001–present)

bar:13 color:AssocOS from:2005 till:end text:Thompson Rivers (2005–present) bar:13 color:FullxF from:2010 till:end text:

bar:14 color:AssocOS from:2006 till:end text:Fraser Valley (2006–present) bar:14 color:FullxF from:2010 till:end text:

bar:15 color:AssocOS from:2010 till:2013 text:British Columbia–Okanagan (2010–present) bar:15 color:FullxF from:2013 till:end text:

bar:16 color:AssocOS from:2011 till:2014 text:Mount Royal (2011–present) bar:16 color:FullxF from:2014 till:end text:

bar:17 color:AssocOS from:2011 till:2014 text:Northern British Columbia (2011–present) bar:17 color:FullxF from:2014 till:end text:

bar:18 color:AssocOS from:2013 till:2015 text:MacEwan (2013–present) bar:18 color:FullxF from:2015 till:end text:

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Facilities

Canadian athletic facilities are often listed by their "maximum capacity", which is often an estimate of their largest recorded crowd in the facility. These maximum capacities can and often do include standing room patrons and attendees seated on grass surrounding a playing field. Seated Capacity is the actual number of permanent seats, be they grandstands or permanently in use bleachers. This is why you will sometimes see larger capacities listed for these sites when searching for them on line. When capacity numbers have mismatched on source sites, unless the larger capacity could be confirmed as a seated capacity, the smaller capacity number has been listed here.

Please update with verified "seated capacities" only when the institutions release more accurate official seated capacities.

(Data mined from the U Sports homepage's member directory and WorldStadiums.com. The member directory numbers seem to be ballpark figures in some cases.)

Future expansion

The media has reported that the following institutions are building their athletic programs for potential admission into the association.

• Capilano University
• Vancouver Island University

In 2012 the conference declared they would not take applications from new schools, as Canada West approved a bid from Grant MacEwan University (now rebranded as MacEwan University) in 2013.

Scholarships, UBC, Simon Fraser University, and the NAIA

In May 2005, UBC made a formal bid to join the NCAA, but decided in April 2011 to remain a part of Canada West Athletics. See the UBC article for more details.

Simon Fraser University (then known as the SFU Clan before changing to the Red Leafs in 2022) did not compete in what is now known as U Sports until 2002, after a failed attempt to join the U.S. NCAA. On July 10, 2009, the NCAA accepted SFU's bid to join NCAA Division II in the 2011–12 season. Canada West proceeded as a 13-team, 14 member conference for 2010–11, with the inclusion of UBC-Okanagan as a non-competing, probationary member for 2010–11, in time to begin competition (pending summer 2011 CIS approval) for the 2011–12 season. In May 2011, Mount Royal was awarded Canada West membership, effective September 2011, with competition to begin in the 2012–13 season. In May 2013, MacEwan (Formally Grant MacEwan) approved as a 17th Canada West member starting in the 2013–14 season.

From its inception in 1965, Simon Fraser competed in the NAIA to allow "full ride" scholarships. Canadian schools did not allow any form of scholarships until the late 1980s. SFU was forced to leave the NAIA in many sports due to schools in the Northwest US shifting to the NCAA. Until 2009, the NCAA limited membership to schools based in the U.S. Some Simon Fraser teams still competed in the U.S. before the school moved to the NCAA, and their men's wrestling program competed in the then-CIS and the NAIA. UBC has several of its programs (baseball, golf, outdoor track and field and softball) compete in the NAIA.

Canada West TV

On August 24, 2011, the association announced the launch of Canadawest.tv as the official home of web-based broadcasting for all 14 Canada West member institutions during the 2011–12 season and beyond. On May 10, 2017, Canada West announced a multi-year deal with Surrey, BC based streaming company, Yare Media, to develop a re-vamped service for the 2017–18 season. In 2017, a dramatic 59-yard field goal kick by Niko DiFonte with two seconds on the clock lifted the Calgary Dinos over the UBC Thunderbirds to win the 81st Hardy Cup football championship in November. Immediately, the footage circulated across mainstream media. Not only did the clip of the record-breaking kick get coverage on television networks and social media channels across North America – including Sportsnet, TSN, CBC, ESPN, NFL.com and USA Today – but it also showcased the streaming quality of the new-look Canada West TV.

In January 2018, Canada West announced record viewing numbers for the new service. On June 8, 2020, the conference announced cancellation of fall sports and no events were featured on Canadawest.tv. Throughout the remainder of 2020 the conference would announce a series of cancellations. The conference announced the resumption of Canadawest.tv streaming on Aug 3, 2021. The 2021–22 season marked the tenth year of Canada West TV service and the first year with streaming partner Visaic after its acquisition of Yare Media in 2020.

Awards

Main article: Canada West University Hockey Awards

References

References

1. "Canada West Universities Athletic Association".
2. (2010-09-02). "UBC Okanagan joins Canada West; TRU & UFV full members". Athletics & Recreation News.
3. (2011-09-01). "Mount Royal University officially joins Canada West Athletics". Canada West Universities Athletic Association.
4. "UNBC becomes latest member of Canada West sports division {{!}} University Affairs". University Affairs.
5. "MacEwan University granted full membership in Canada West".
6. "Simon Fraser athletics to pursue U SPORTS membership".
7. Brown, Matt. (2025-12-03). "There's only one Canadian school in the NCAA, and it's leaving. Here's why.".
8. "Jasper Place Bowl Artificial Turf | City of Edmonton".
9. [http://www.universitysport.ca/e/members/directory_complete_print.cfm U Sports directory] {{webarchive. link. (2009-07-27)
10. "World Stadiums.com".
11. http://cupwire.ca/articles/51957 {{Webarchive. link. (2013-05-26 - CUP - March 7, 2012 - University presidents in Canada West push for high performance division)
12. Brown, Matt. "There's only one Canadian school in the NCAA, and it's leaving. Here's why.".
13. "Canada West, Stretch Internet launch CanadaWest.TV web-based broadcasting - U SPORTS - English".
14. Daum, Evan. (March 2016). "From Canada West: Canada West, Yare Media partner on revamped Canada West TV".
15. "Canada West TV success a model for livestreaming across U SPORTS".
16. (January 4, 2018). "Canada West TV posts record first half".
17. (June 8, 2020). "Canada West cancels 2020-21 first term team competitions".
18. "Canada West - Search for 'covid'".
19. (August 3, 2021). "2021-22 Canada West TV passes on sale".